Let’s start with two questions. Number one: which of your work activities and tasks really get you going? And number two: which activities and tasks are you supervised on, or criticized or promoted for by your boss?
Academia’s reward system
In our efforts to further professionalize academic careers and quantitatively recognize and reward academic work, we might have gone too far: scientists are seemingly running a uniform treadmill of superficial performance indicators, like impact factors and h-indexes. And although you might receive the occasional compliment for contributing to team efforts, for your persistence despite negative results and failed experiments, for your profoundly creative (and risky) research proposal or for your efforts to deliver excellent education for generations to come: will these actions of yours also help advance your career?
A new approach to recognizing and rewarding academics
You might have noticed here and there: a new wind is starting to blow, so it seems. On november 15th, the Association for Universities in The Netherlands (VSNU) published a position paper co-signed by the major scientific (funding) institutions of the country that aims for more diverse evaluation criteria for academics. The goal: to better recognize and reward academics in the future.
All kinds of ponies
The newly proposed system aims to diversify evaluation criteria to not only include research, but also allow academics primarily focused on (and good at) education, societal impact, and leadership to be recognized and rewarded for their efforts. The plan acknowledges, really for the first time, that these non-scientific activities are also highly valuable and necessary for a healthy and productive academy.
Notably, the idea is not to implement more boxes to tick, but to pick which box needs to be ticked for an individual academic to be evaluated positively. In this perspective, scholars are no longer forced to perform as one-trick ponies.
A whole lotta talk
This might sound like a whole lotta talk, with little relevance to you; the junior researcher’s reading of such policy changes may be as different as their assessment of research standards when compared to their supervisor’s. What good does it do you that some big institutions claim that they might evaluate your research differently in the future, when your own supervisor is not at the forefront of this new movement?
But but but…
The recent string of publications on changing our research culture may offer some support at dire times. Instead of focusing on the short-term impact of your current supervisor and institution on your career, you may read the VSNU paper and others of its kind as pats on the back, nudging you to start behaving in the way that fits your view of how academia could and should work. And by the way: if you’re ever thinking you can’t change anything about your life as a researcher, you might want to read this.
Hypercompetition
And while we’re at it: do you view your peers (be it PhD candidates, PostDocs, or PI’s from within and outside your department) as your collaborators or your competitors? Academia is often described as hypercompetitive. But isn’t that – Tada! - quite related to the one-trick-pony reward system that measures everyone on the same singular dimension? What if academia manages to focus on individual and team efforts in a more diverse way?
Would you then allow yourself to become more kind to yourself and own your strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of others?
Your kind of pony
You may want to start off this new year and the next chapter in your academic career by asking yourself: what are my qualities and what do I want to use them for? Start talking to your peers: they might even recognize your talents more easily than you yourself. Include your supervisor in your plans and ambitions. If he/she doesn’t seem too responsive, look for other mentors – formally or informally – to make sure you get the guidance that fits you. Take responsibility for the choices you make: if you want to focus more on impact than on fundamental knowledge associated with your research, start crafting a plan to advance in that realm.
And remember: once you decide you are running free outside your cage, it will be difficult for others to force you back in unless you chose to!
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